BEHIND THE LENS: WITH NATE DIAZ

Nate Diaz. What can we say? He’s one of the most popular fighters in MMA right now and deservedly so. We had the honor of shooting and interviewing Nate right before his fight with the Notorious Conor McGregor and let me tell you this, it was one of th most memorable shoots we’ve had. He was the consummate professional. We shot up the I-5 North and arrived at the Nate Diaz Academy later in the evening and met up with our good friend Carlo from Ziggy’s in the 209; who by the way, is a trooper. Dude was sick as a dog and still sucked it up and managed to facilitate this whole meeting. We took a tour of the facility and set up shop, then Nate showed up. Once Nate showed up, he was like, “What’s up, what are we doing? He changed into his Represent gear and went straight to work

The ironic thing about rapping with Nate was when we asked him if he thought Conor shot to fame by doing the shit Nate’s been doing for years, he emphatically said, hell yeah. He also mentioned that if he ever had the chance to fight him, he would instantly. Fast forward a couple months, Rafael Dos Anjos slated to fight Conor pulls our with an injury and Nate gets the call and the rest is history. Now, if that’s proof that the universe works in your favor, I don’t know what is.

The realest thing about Nate is that the persona that you see on Jimmy Kimmel and Conan is 100% real. It’s not fabricated one bit. He’s the same dude when we interviewed him no doubt.

After the shoot, Nate promptly Gi’d up and started engaging with the class that was there and even rolled with them a little. He was never pretentious as one would think a world fighter would be, but more of a local hero and icon.

We just want to thank Nate and the team at the Nick Diaz Academy for allowing us to use your facility and accommodations.

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